Select Publically Available Conflict and Violence Datasets- Regional Typology Overview (October, 2015)

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1 Dataset ACLED GTD Igarapé INSCR/CSP -MEPV INSCR/CSP- HCTB RDWTI UCDP- GED Title and Igarapé Institute Institution Homicide Monitor Website Armed Conflict Location Event Dataset Project (ACLED) com Global Terrorism Database/National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) u/gtd/ org.br/ Integrated Network for Societal Conflict Research/Center for Systemic Peace- Major Episodes of Political Violence ce.org/inscrdata.html Integrated Network for Societal Conflict Research/Center for Systemic Peace- High Casualty Terrorist Bombings ce.org/inscr/hctbsep2 014list.pdf RAND Database of Worldwide Terrorism Incidents (RDWTI) d/projects/terrorismincidents.html Uppsala University Conflict Data Project: Georeferenced Event Dataset (GED) ed/ Focus Time Frame Key Definitions Political violence event data, disaggregated by time, agent, type and space across Africa and Asia in real time A politically violent event is a single altercation where often force is used by one or more groups for a political end. Some instances including protests and strategic development are included to capture the potential precursors or critical junctures of a conflict. Systematic data on domestic and international terrorist events Homicide rates (using UNODC data), weapon used, gender of victim Data on major episodes of political violence (international). Data on high casualty terrorist bombings (international) Data on terrorism incidents (international) Event-based and georeferenced dataset on organized violence in Africa and East Asia ;; for select East Asian States For an incident to qualify as a terrorist act it in the GTD it must satisfy three criteria: a) be intentional;; b) incident must entail some level of violence or immediate threat of violence;; and c) the perpetrators of the incidents must be sub national actors. The database does not include acts of state terrorism Information included in the Homicide Monitor corresponds to the official count registered in primary sources. Igarapé often triangulated multiple counts, virtually always selecting the most conservative registered figures. Major episodes of political violence are defined by the systematic and sustained use of lethal violence by organized groups that result in at least 500 directly-related deaths over the course of the episode. High casualty bombings are carried out by nonstate actors resulting in fifteen or more deaths. Armed assaults on civilian targets that use firearms or other handheld weapons are not included. Terrorism is defined by the nature of the act, not by the identity of the perpetrators or the nature of the cause;; key elements include: violence or the threat of violence, calculated to create fear and alarm, intended to coerce certain actions, motive must include a political objective, generally directed against civilian targets, can be a group or an individual. An act of organized violence between or across state groups, non state groups and/or civilians. An event can occur across one or more days (e.g. a single recorded events can occur across several years) in a location (e.g. a single event can be recorded as occurring in the entire country). The event must result in at least one fatality. Coverage 60 + countries 190+ countries 32 countries in Latin America & Caribbean Location of incident Location of incident 9 regions/location of incident 38 countries 1

2 Event Totals 100,000 events 140,000 counts of terrorism Event Types Actor Types Battle- No Change of Battle- Non- State Actor Overtake Territory, Battle-: Gov t Regains Strategic Developments Non-Violent Transfer of Headquarters or Base Establishment;; Riots;; Protests, Violence Against Civilians Government or mutinous forces Rebel force Political militia Communal militia Rioters Protesters Civilians Outside/external force (e.g. UN) Assassination;; Hijacking;; Kidnapping;; Barricade Incident;; Bombing/Explosion;; Unknown Armed Assault Unarmed Assault Facility/Infrastructure Attack The Perpetrator Group Name field contains the name of the group that carried out the attack. In order to ensure consistency in the usage of group names for the database, the GTD database uses a standardized list of group names that have been established by project staff to serve as a reference for all subsequent entries. 449 (Country/year total lines) Homicides 9,392 events (in the annual dataset) International violence;; International war;; International Independence war;; Civil violence;; Civil war;; Ethnic Violence;; and Ethnic War. 1,120 incidents 40,030 incidents 21,860 events Case list of bomb attacks on noncombatant (civilian and political) targets by nonstate actors resulting in 15 or more deaths. Males/females;; Age Actors not recorded Non-combatants (civilian and political) and non-state actors. Domestic/international incidents;; US casualty/property attacks;; suicide missions;; attacks claimed;; coordinated attacks;; interrupted attacks. Named Perpetrator 1: Group responsible for the attack. Named Perpetrator 2: Second group responsible for the attack. Named Multi Perp (>2) : Default setting is no. If more that two groups are responsible than yes is entered. State-based;; Non-state One-sided. Violent attacks and those resulting in or presenting a risk of serious injury (campaigns of eviction, arson or rape) by conflict actors are not recorded;; neither are non-violent events such as protests or riots in which no person is killed. UCDP-GED recognises governments of independent states, as well as organized groups as relevant actors. UCDP does not record events in which one of the actors is an unidentified conflict group engaging in state based, non-state and one sided violence. e.g. Government of Algeria ANC supporters Time Scale Daily/Event Daily/Event Daily/Event Daily/Event Daily/Event Daily/Event Daily/Event Location Local Local Local National Local Local Local Scale Location Georeferenced Georeferenced. City/town Country City/town City/town Georeferenced. 2

3 Precision Fatality Accounting Data Sources by town/village Adm1, 2 and 3 reference Additional geographic precision measure Records estimates of fatalities when reported by source materials. Fatalities not a determinant of inclusion. ACLED uses daily local, regional, national and continental media, NGO and humanitarian agency reporting, and supplementary Africa-focused news reports to provide source materials. Identifies the geospatial resolution of the latitude and longitude fields of events. Includes number of total confirmed fatalities for each incident. The number includes all victims and attackers who died as a direct result of the incident GTD uses publicly available, open-source materials. These include electronic news archives, existing data sets, secondary source materials such as books and journals, and legal documents. Murder rates UNODC, WHO, and national country data Does not include death counts. INSCR uses (unlisted) various sources. Includes estimates of death totals. INSCR uses (unlisted) various sources. Records injuries and fatalities counted. The RAND data is based on various (unlisted) sources (unlisted). Geographic precision between 1 and 7 indicates greater or lower precision. At least one direct fatality arising from the event is a condition of inclusion in the UCDPGED dataset. Where fatalities are reported in a range of geographic locations, UCDP-GED utilises a Deathsplit variable, to indicate the total number of fatalities has been evenly split across geographic locations to create multiple events. UCDP sources are news agencies, research reports, monographs, and documents of international and multinational agencies and NGOs. Documents of actors themselves (such as warring parties) are used when available. Benefits Records a full range of political instability and violence by Includes data on weapon type used in incidents. For LAC countries, includes information on weapon used, gender and age of perpetrator Captures large scale events only. Captures high casualty events only. Includes data on weapon type used in incidents and whether attack was claimed by Easily 'linkable' to other datasets such as GeoEPR through docking datasets 3

4 Codebook discrete event. Data structure designed for maximum comparability Includes 'Unidentified Armed Groups';; Atomic (day, location, actor, event);; data.com/wpcontent/uploads/ 2015/01/ACLED _Codebook_201 5.pdf u/gtd/downloads/codeb ook.pdf and victim. the perpetrator or not. like ACD2EPR, allowing researchers with questions about ethnicity & conflict test their theories. N/A ce.org/inscr/mepvcode book2014.pdf N/A d/projects/terrorismincidents/about/definitio ns.html Code book available in data zip file: ed/data.php Additional Regional Datasets Arab Awakening Project Coverage: 18 Arab states in the Middle East North Africa region as well as Iran, Sudan, Israel/Palestine and Cyprus, from Event types: protests and coercive policing Event totals: 6,863 The Arab Awakening Project is not included in the above selection because it only covers one year of activity. It is, however, a comprehensive database of the political events that occurred over the course of the Arab Spring. GDelt Dataset Coverage: Incident location, January 1, 1979 to present Event types: Media coverage of wide range of events, emotions, counts, and quotes Event totals: +2.5 billion 4

5 GDelt data is not included in the above selection because it does not provide a robust account of conflict events but rather serves as a comprehensive media analysis tool. It also does not record acts of political violence as the above datasets do and uses automated media monitoring which often fails to capture important elements of conflict dynamics. Social Conflict in Africa Dataset (SCAD) ages/sp-using Coverage: African States, 1989-Nov 2010 Event types: social violence or: protests, riots, strike, extra government activity, state repression, anti-government activity, intra-government activity Event totals: 7,300 SCAD is not included in the selection datasets above because its core focus are acts of social violence, defined as a disturbance occurring for one or more days (e.g. a single recorded events can occur across several years), is not in keeping with the definition of political violence in the above datasets. It includes various types of violence without clear indications of their differences or whether they are thoroughly coded. Institute for Conflict Management- South East Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP) Coverage: Terrorism and low intensity warfare in Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Event Types: Terrorism and low intensity warfare Event Totals: N/A SATP does not measure conflict events but fatalities at the national level and raw data is not publically available. 5